My story "At the Shoe Shop of Madness" is a mashup of Brothers Grimm and H.P. Lovecraft. It's the darkly humorous tale of what happens when Schumacher the Shoemaker traps a foul tempered and foul mouthed elf, exacting an ill fated bargain.

Or, if you would like a copy personally autographed to you, by me, along with your own Weirdsville Cartoon, all for just the cover price of the book plus $3.00 shipping, just email me at neverendingwonder _AT_ hotmail.com

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Hello, my friends! Today we're going to have the very first guest post on the NeverEndingWonder Blog. Our guest will be horror author Anthony Rapino. His debut novel "Soundtrack to the End of the World" has just been released, and he's hosting a very cool virtual event to celebrate! YOU can win actual real prizes! Keep reading to learn all the details.The next voice you will read will be that of Anthony Rapino, our guest.

Hypnotic Wanderings

﻿Thank you to today’s host, the Dark King of Weirdsville, Lee Widener. I have to also thank Lee for oodles of ooey gooey, bloody and chewy inspiration. Come autumn, Lee’s (now, unfortunately defunct) NeverEndingWonder Radio became the soundtrack to my writing, and has more than once carried my wandering mental vibrations to that plain writers often seek out. That place where nothing exists for us but our words. It’s a good place to be.

It’s like hypnosis. And if you’ve ever spoken to a hypnotist, you know that all hypnosis is self hypnosis. If you believe this, then it follows that we may hypnotize ourselves on a regular basis, without even knowing it.

This explains the “movie in your head” phenomenon. You may have noticed that when reading a book, sometimes it plays out like a movie in your head. I propose that only when you’ve reached deep involvement with the story, when you’ve really “gotten into it,” when you’ve reached a moment of self hypnosis, do you experience the novel as a movie your head.This makes even more sense if you’ve ever reached the end of a reading session only to realize, I can’t believe I’ve been reading for three hours! It felt like only minutes! You were outside your body. You were floating free in the comforting waters of self-hypnosis. You were experiencing the novel rather than reading it.Not convinced? I understand; it sounds like so much mumbo jumbo, not unlike the hippy dippy aura reading Naomi Santrel conducts in my novel Soundtrack to the End of the World. But like Naomi would say, there’s more to it than you can see. Try this: Think back to a novel you read two or three years ago. Stop reading this, and really think back. Got it? Okay, now recall a favorite scene from that novel. Think about the scene for a minute, take your time.

When you’ve finished thinking about the novel in question, answer me this: In what way did you remember the novel? Did you remember the words on the page, the place you were sitting or reclining, the time of day, the weather? Or did you remember the novel as images? Did you see the characters or did you see the words?Chances are good you remembered the novel as images. In fact, taking it one step further, I’ve often completely forgotten if a story I was thinking about was a novel at all. The images and characters so vivid in my mind, it could have been a movie.Of course there will be times you remember the words themselves. Sometimes you love a turn of phrase so much that you commit the quote to memory. But I’m willing to bet many more times, you weren’t reading, you were experiencing.

These are the times I live for. These are the experiences I hope to create for my readers. So what are you waiting for? Go forth and hypnotize thy self.

Win a $50 Amazon Gift Card!

Collect all twelve game pieces (available from each blog stop during my tour), put the pieces together, and decipher the code. It will lead you to a secret website. If you’re the first person to comment on the site, you win!Join us in the Insanity Rocketto discuss the contest.

Stop by the blog tour pagefor all upcoming dates and more contest info.

currently available in signed limited hardcover, trade paperback, and ebook editions.

Who knew the end could sound so good.

A suicidal nudist strolls into traffic. An eccentric Buddhist claims he can occupy other people’s bodies. All the while, whispers of a new form of entertainment blow through town. Prompted by these strange occurrences, Marty Raft, a not-so-gentle giant, investigates and discovers underground clubs peddling music that induces an out-of-body experience. Marty and a wannabe comedian, Corey, set out to prove these special frequencies are nothing more than a hoax, or at worst, a mass-drugging. Instead, they uncover a secret with world-ending possibilities. If you can hear the music, it’s already too late.

Author bio

Anthony J. Rapino resides in Northeastern Pennsylvania, somewhere between the concrete of the city and the trees of the forest. On occasion, you’ll find him moderating the feverish battles between the creatures of these two arenas. Whose side he’s on is anyone’s guess.His newest fiction can be found in Black Ink Horror, On Spec, Arcane Anthology, Electric Spec, A cappella Zoo, Space Squid, TQR Stories, and carved inside a variety of autumn gourds. His short story collection, Welcome to Moon Hillis currently available, as is his first novel Soundtrack to the End of the World . Proof of his psychosis can be found on his website: AnthonyRapino.com